


I Think I can Make It If You Can

by Charlie Rotanev (Immerghensi)



Category: One Direction (Band)
Genre: Dream Creatures, Feels, Imaginary Friends, Larry Stylinson Is Real, Louis watches Harry grow up, M/M, Wingedwolf!Louis, sort of like the end of monsters inc
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-06-11
Updated: 2015-06-11
Packaged: 2018-04-03 21:53:56
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,931
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4116208
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Immerghensi/pseuds/Charlie%20Rotanev
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>“Can I sleep with you?”</p><p>“Of course, baby, c'mere.”<br/>**<br/>Or, the one where Louis protects Harry. (made specifically for the feels)</p>
            </blockquote>





	I Think I can Make It If You Can

**Author's Note:**

> It's too early for the feels, but I had to bang this one out while I had the idea fresh in my writer mind.

Harry Styles is five years old when he first summons Louis. It feels like he’s drowning and floating at the same time; the transcendence terrifying and beautiful in all it is. He could’ve requested another member of the AGS to take his place, but it was just so tempting. How could he resist? Niall had just come back from his first assignment, and that was all he’d been talking about. He had just been assigned to another child when Louis got his first letter. They were both so excited because this was it- what they had been created for.

 

He touches to the ground gently, one paw at a time. The room is plain, well kept, and there’s nothing out of place except for the little boy curled up in the corner. He pads over quietly.

 

“Hello there. What is your name?” Louis asks. He is in wolf form, waiting for his human to choose something he likes.  

 

“My mummy said not to talk to strangers.” He whispers.

 

“I’m not a stranger, though- I’m your friend. My name is Louis. What is yours?”

 

“Harry.” The boy has these massive green eyes that glisten with unshed tears. Louis’ heart cracks quietly. He lays down so his left wing is closest to the corner.

The first thing that his human does is pull his tail. It’s dark in the room, the moon hung high on its pedestal in the single, large window. Outside, he can hear what he can only assume are the boy’s parents fighting. There are harsh words and loud crashes, and little Harry is just so scared that he lifts one of his wings and pulls the tips over him. Louis’ mythical form is fluffy and comforting, so he just lets it happen. This is his job. He will stay here and comfort his child until the day that Harry finds something else more comforting.

 

“Well, Harry, do you like my wings?”

 

“Can I sleep with you?”

  
“Of course, baby, c’mere.” Louis turns on his side, exposing his red-flecked black underside. the child nestles under him, settling down. The noises outside grow louder and the dream beast just pulls his baby closer. He feels fulfilled. Harry falls asleep that night with a friend. He falls asleep with his head on the wolf’s chest, listening to the sound of Louis’ heartbeat.

∆

The boys in Harry’s class made fun at him today, calling him names and telling him that he was a baby because he believed there was a red and black wolf sleeping in his bed every night. Louis gets his human form- a light skinned boy with dark hair and his same bright blue wolf eyes. Harry has imagined him to be a few years older, like a big brother.

 

“Next time they make fun of you, tell them about me, and how I am your friend. Now I am a boy like you.” He says in a prepubescent voice. Louis contains all the knowledge of his normal self in a small body. As his child grows, he will grow in turn. The bond they share will get stronger, and this makes the imaginary boy smile.

 

When Harry comes home the next day, he sits down with Louis and tell him how he explained to his classmates that Louis was a boy, not a wolf, and how only two boys made fun of him today. Anne smiles and tells him “that’s nice, honey” like the good mother she is. Gemma just shakes her head. Her own guardian, a ginger boy named Edward with big glasses, waves to Louis quietly from his obsolete form. He is an array of dust in the sunlight, following around his own child just in case she needs him. She tells Harry that Louis isn’t real, that he needs to grow up, but Harry refuses. Gemma lost her guardian early, but Louis has faith that Harry will hold on.

 ∆

When Harry turned ten, he stopped believing. He blew out his candles, and all of a sudden Louis was just an outline without a form. He was the shadow in the background of the pictures, a memory long since past. Louis cried that night, nestled in a corner at the edge of the bed. He wishes he could turn back time, back to when Harry was just learning to read and he would curl up with Louis in the treehouse out back to practice.

 

But that’s the funny thing- Louis can only move forward.

 

As much as he loves Harry, he isn't needed anymore. He sits with Edward sometimes, both of them meeting in the place where the light meets the darkness. Edward must sleep at night, so it’s lonely then, and Louis feels sick during the day. It’s an odd existence, being in limbo, but what else can he do? 

∆

Harry will never know that it was his dream guardian who pulled him out of that room and onto a bed that night at Liam’s. One of the college boys from another complex invited him to a ‘rave’, which Harry instantly accepted. He’d drank himself into oblivion; his week had been all sorts of hell.

 

“Who are you?” Harry grumbles drunkenly. “Where are we going?”

 

“You’re drunk, baby, hold on.” Louis whispers.

 

“I’m not…..” He trails off. Harry turns onto his side and blacks out. Louis watches him all night, ready to run into the next room to incite someone to check up on his boy.

 

No one at the party remembers his face enough to identify to Harry who he is. Louis waits in the shadows with the other guardians who haven’t been released yet. He watches as his baby grows and learns to sing. He watches his baby grow up, careful to make sure he is never seen nor heard. It hurts, but he’s never felt more pride.

∆

He isn’t confronted with a situation where he has to become real again. Louis watches from afar for another seven years. He watches Harry complete university and graduate. He watches him marry a good man. He watches the relationship fall to pieces. All the while, he sits in the darkness and whispers into Harry’s ear at night. He watches Harry’s dreams, making sure that even though his reality may be tough, that he still has a place to go in his sleep.

∆

Harry's daughter is too little to call out her father's name, so it’s up to Louis to get him. Harry adopted her three years ago, when he and Liam were still fighting to keep the marriage together. Harry decided to have her live with him because of Liam's work. She deserved a parent who could be like a mother to her, and with his writing career and his singing, Harry is just that. The baby has been healthy so far with an apetite for adventure. It's kept both of them on their toes.

 

She’s out of the crib and is following him to the master bedroom. It’s just one misstep onto a creaking board, and he’s blown his cover.

 

“Louis…?” Harry says, his eyes still blurry with sleep, and the world stops for a moment to look in on him. His heart is doing flips and his own wolfish eyes are wide with hope and relief. The nostalgia hits him like a blast of heat from the sun, filling him from the inside out. "Louis, is that you?" 

 

“You remembered me…” he breaths. Lou's changed. They both have. He's surprised that his child has recognized him so quickly. Louis is only 5'8, his hair brushed back messily into a fringe and his cheek bones are more defined, but Harry has managed to hold onto his creation.

 

“You were real?”

 

“I was as real as you made me.”

 

“What are you doing here?”

 

“Your baby needs you, but I cannot lift her.”

 

She sits on the floor at the head of the bed patiently. Harry pulls her up by the arms, tucking his daughter in beside him.

 

“You’ve done so well.” Louis smiles. His child hums contently. 

 

“Thank you, Louis.” Harry yawns. Louis furrows his eyes.

 

“I have done nothing for you.”

 

“You have been my friend all these years, and I have never known you. You were there for me when no one else was. You cared for me always, and that is a fantastic thing.”

 

“I am your dream-beast and you are my child. I would do anything for you.”

 

“Would you stay here with me if I asked you to?”

 

“Baby, I can’t. It’s against the Code.” he cries softly, “You won’t be able to see me after this. But know that I’m here, ok? I’ll always be here, because you are my baby and I am your imaginary friend, no matter what name I am called or where I am.”

 

“I won’t remember you in the morning?” Harry sounds like he’s going to cry. Louis turns, his heart shattering with the weight of the truth. “Then will you just lay with me? As your real self, not the one I made for you?”

 

“I can do that.” Louis says. He lets his bones shift and his colors change. His wings sprout from his shoulders as he shrinks into his mythical form. He used to tower over Harry, but no more. The boy is a grown man now, beautiful as the day Louis descended from the dream-beasts’ pocket of the universe. Harry pats the bedside, making space for his friend to jump up there. Louis flutters to the head of the bed, circling until he is comfortable on the plush pillows. Harry lifts his head so he can rest it on the red-flecked black underside of the winged wolf’s belly. Louis knows that he must leave before Harry wakes, and that he will have to go back to be reassigned, but at least for one more night his baby will fall asleep to the sound of the wolf’s heartbeat.  

∆

He is called to the Distribution department after two years of waiting around. No member of the Adolescent Guardian System has seen much of him in that time, not even Niall, whom Louis confided nearly everything in. 

 

When he gets his new request, he wonders how other dream creatures survive being separated from their hosts after such a long time. Louis, Niall, and the other members of the AGS are practically immortal, which means that this is the first of many assignments and many children he must raise.

 

The feeling of descent isn’t as powerful now that it’s his second time, and he looks around the room for his new baby to protect. He finds her under the bed, scared of the open closet and the boogeymen that live in it. Louis fluffs up his wings and gets down flat against the floor.

 

“Hello there. Why don’t you come out, little one?”

 

“I don’t want to get eaten by the monsters like you.” she whispers.

 

“But sweetie-I’m a friendly monster who fights the bad people and protects little girls like you. You don't have to be afraid of me. Come out from there, hm?” Louis wags his tail like he's a puppy, the red streaks creating neon lines in the dark that only they can see. Eventually, his new child crawls out from under the bed and pulls his wing over her as protection. "There we go. I'm right here for you."

 

"Will you always be here for me?" She asks.

 

"Always." He replies, letting his baby fall asleep under his wing. 

 

Darcy Styles is five years old when she first summons Louis.

 

**Author's Note:**

> Comments appreciated!  
> Also, Epilogue or nah?


End file.
